Morning journal and courier., 1887-05-10
SrOVER' SNAKE FARM.

Lots of Rattlers for Sale and Some
 Black Snakes and BIue Racers on Hand.
 From the St. Louis Globe-Delnocrat.l Your correspondent last Sunday visited the celebrated snake 'rattlesnake forty"-
 near Galton, III. owned and managed by Capt.
 Dan Stover and wife, and assisted by William
 Dunn.
 "Who buys rattlesnakes, and what on
 earth do they want with them?" you ask. Why, for use in the manufacture of the new cure of rheumatism. A firm in Phil adelphia uses the oil in their remedy, and pays a good price for every rattle snake delivered at the laboratory. MT. Stover has contracted with the firm to furnish them two hundred and fifty of that species during the present season at S2. .25 each, none to measure less than four feet in length or to be less than six years of age. The older the snake the better and stronger the oil.
 Sunday the sun shone cut bright and warm, which brought out the snakes in large numbers to bask in the warm rays, and, as MT. Stover said, would be good
 day to take stroll over ',rattlesnake for l ty." Procuring a good stout stick
 and donning heavy pair of boots, your l correspondent joined Strover and Dunn in 1 the hunt. Dunn is Q comparatively n9W 1 man in the snake business, and has had several narrow escapes from being bitter l by deadly reptiles, but he is learning l fast. To show us how easy it is to kill | snake, he picked up a blue racer by the | tail that was lying coiled up in the sun. l light, in a half comatose condition, and | giving it couple of whirls over his head | in a lightning manner, he cracked 1t like l a whip, causing it's head to part from its
 body and spin through the air. Proceed | ing little further we came to 'the | mounds,'' little raised places on the snake 1 farm, where the snakes burrow in winter | and breed in summer. There are thirty. 1 seven of these mounds on the farm, and on the south side of one of the largest ot ! these, where they could get the full benefit of the sun, lay coiled up, sound asleep, forty 1 three large rattlesnakes, seven black snakes, | and numerous other smaller reptiles, not one | of which seemed to recognize our presence. l Stover and Dunn do not kill off the whole | crop yearly, but leave many for breeding | purposes.
 "Why," said the former, ''that mound 1 there contains probably 8 dozen nests of | eggs, and each nest at least ten eggs. ] l have found nests that contained as high as l eighteen young rattlers, the largest not over | two inches in length. Their eggs are about l the size of those of a partridge, but
 have a soft she'll" The farm is a 1 tract of virgin prairie, and has never | seen plough, and Dan syas Tn sum
 mer it's native grass is very high, render
 ing it an excellend place for the reptiles te | hide in.
 After retiring to the house, the two snake | breeders exhibited string of rattles severa l feet in length, which they captured last sum
 mer, the whole footing up seven hundred ant sixty y-eight rattles. Some of the snake pos
 sessed twenty-five rattles and button, eacl
 rattle counting year to it's age and the button | a fraction of year.
 | Mrs. Stover also had in a box of sawdust un l der cook stove twenty-seven rattlesnak
 eggs which, she said, would begin to hatch il a few days, after which event the childrel
 would be kept busy catching flies to feed tn
 tiny pets.
 l Stover and Dunn have several pet rattler
 around the house, which are harmless a
 kittens, made so by their poison sac having
 been removed from the roofs of their mouth
 and their fangs clipped with pincers, all thi being done while the snakes were under tn 1 influence of chloroform. They have h, equal as mice exterminators, and in the sum
 mer keep the place free from bugs and bat boys.
 l It is needless to say the neighbours childrel l do not trouble the Stover household.